Not everyone knows that the roadside blue flower is the famous chicory, which is used to make a coffee surrogate. And many healers and scientists of antiquity knew about the healing properties of this plant.
Chicory ordinary: description
It belongs to perennial herbaceous plants. Its root is spindle-shaped, very large and fleshy, secreting milky juice when cut.
Common chicory has an erect stem with a ribbed surface, reaching a height of 120 centimeters, strongly branching.
The leaves of the plant are collected in rosettes, the leaves near the base of the flower have a notched, slightly lobed or pinnatipartite structure, tapering towards the base. The leaves are mid-stem, lanceolate, sessile, alternate with a broad base and sharply serrated edges, while the upper leaves are lanceolate and more entire.
Bisexual flowers are located in baskets, always in the axils of the leaves and singly along the tops of the plant. They are blue in color, but there are also pinkish and white species, petals with 5 teeth, reed. Time of abundant floweringfalls in the middle of summer. After flowering, an achene (carpel) appears, mostly pentagonal or triangular. Its length is small, 2-3 millimeters, it is slightly oblong and has a brown tint.
The common chicory plant is a wonderful honey plant. It also reacts very strongly to sunlight - it is very difficult to find open flowers after 5 pm.
Growing places
It grows almost everywhere: it can be found in the Asian and European parts of Eurasia, as well as in New Zealand, Africa, Australia. Photos of common chicory are familiar to many residents of these places. Quite often it is found along ditches, roads, in meadows, sometimes forms abundant thickets.
Landing
To choose the right site for planting it, you need to know that it cannot be sown constantly in one place, since permanent crops can lead to various diseases. It should take about three years before the plant can be returned to the same place.
Do not sow it after potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, as this plant is susceptible to wireworm or sclerotinia. Be prepared that after harvesting chicory, parts of the root crop that germinate in the spring will remain in the soil. In order not to fight weeds, plant plants in this place that need to be harvested early, in other words, with a short growing season. Among them are irises, tulips, gladioli.
Care
Autumnit is necessary to dig up the site, the depth should be at least 30 cm. Superphosphate fertilizer is added to the ground, as well as 40% potassium s alt. In the spring, the soil is harrowed, after which ammonium nitrate is added. Chicory seeds should be sown at the end of April, the distance between rows should be 40 cm, and from each other - about 10 cm. After planting, the plot is rolled.
Collection
For medical purposes, mainly chicory roots are used, sometimes grass is used, namely the tops and flowers of the plant. Roots are harvested in autumn. They are dug up, then washed with cool water, rid of excess moisture. Next, the roots are cut into pieces and removed to dry, which can be done in the open air and using drying equipment. Dried roots can be stored up to 2 years.
The grass is harvested during the flowering of the plant, that is, common chicory must be harvested in the summer. To do this, cut off the upper stems (about 30 cm in size). Grass can also be dried in dryers or outdoors. Its storage time is one calendar year.
Healing properties
Alternative medicine has found a large number of uses for chicory. For example, grass, seeds and roots are used in the treatment of the liver, stomach, bladder, intestines, spleen, and preparations based on this plant are used for epilepsy and hysteria as a sedative, in addition, they treat anemia and hemoptysis.
Decoction of the seeds has antipyretic, analgesic and diaphoretic effects. An infusion of flowers can calm a person with increased excitability, and also reduces pain in the heart. The fresh juice of the plant was used to treat anemia and malaria. A decoction of the herb is often added to baths, thus treating diathesis, eczema and joints. The same herb is used in the form of a poultice to eliminate boils, and in the form of ash, along with sour cream, it is used for a variety of skin lesions, including eczema and psoriasis.
Traditional healers have been familiar with common chicory, the medicinal properties of which are described in detail in this article, since ancient times. In various works of ancient healers there are references to this flower.
Chicory is a great coffee substitute, although it is much he althier. Such a replacement helps to cleanse the human body, remove accumulated toxins and slags, radioactive substances, helps improve digestion, and also speeds up metabolism.
The plant has a positive effect on the process of digestion and gastric motility. For example, ordinary chicory, when digesting difficult-to-digest foods, helps to improve the functioning of the stomach.
The removal of toxins is explained by the fact that the plant has a beneficial effect on the liver, while enhancing its functions.
Recipes
Chicory ordinary has unique beneficial properties. For example, with its daily use, the general condition of a person and the condition of his skin in particular improve.
The most elementary way to use it is considered to be in the form of a decoction.
Root decoction
Roots of common chicory in the volume of a tablespoon must be thoroughly crushed, then pour half a liter of hot water and boil for thirty minutes. The resulting broth should be filtered after cooling and taken in a tablespoon before meals three times a day. This decoction perfectly helps the digestion process, improves appetite, and is also considered an excellent diuretic and choleretic agent.
Infusion of roots
Chicory root is used to make an infusion. It is used to treat the stomach, inflammation of the bladder, as well as skin diseases. The recipe for the infusion is quite simple: a tablespoon of ground dry root should be poured with half a liter of hot water and left to infuse for several hours in a closed container. After the infusion should be filtered, squeeze out the remnants of the root and apply half an hour before meals, half a glass three times a day. Also, the infusion is recommended to drink for the treatment of an enlarged spleen or gallstone disease.
Chicory juice
Chicory is used in the form of juice, which has a huge number of useful properties, since it treats skin diseases (diathesis, acne, pustular skin diseases, eczema) and anemia, in addition, it is a sedative. In order to make juice, you only need young shoots during their budding period, which are washed very thoroughly, then scalded with boiling water and passed through a meat grinder. The finished slurry must be squeezed through several layers of gauze or a rag and boil the resulting juice for a couple of minutes. Next, you need to add honey to the finished product and take up to 4 times a day for a teaspoon.
Lotions from the roots
Such lotions help cure diathesis in children after two years. In order to prepare a lotion, you will need a chicory root and its aerial part, taken in equal parts. Four tablespoons of the finished mixture should be boiled in a glass of clean water for half an hour. Next, you need to cool and squeeze thoroughly. Douches or baths should be taken at night. The treatment time is at least three days.
For the treatment of anemia
You will need half a glass of milk, to which you need to add a spoonful of chicory juice. This mixture should be taken at least three times a day for a month and a half. Next, you need to take a break for one week and repeat the course.
To improve vision
To restore or improve vision, chicory is also suitable - a plant with unique healing properties. To do this, use a mixture of parsley juice, chicory, celery and carrots. A glass a day of this mixture, when used regularly for several days, gives excellent results for various visual defects.
For gastritis
Stems and flowers of chicory must be carefully chopped, then take a couple of spoons of this composition. This amount of the mixture must be poured with a liter of hot water and boiled for fifteen minutes. Cool, strain, then drink half a glass three times a day.
For arrhythmias
Chicory root must be carefully chopped,then take one spoonful, pour it with half a liter of clean water and boil. Remove from heat, close the container with a lid and leave for two hours. Then strain and add honey to the broth. The finished product should be taken half a cup three times a day before meals.
For the treatment of lung diseases, prevention of bronchitis and laryngitis
Chop chicory root, add motherwort herb to it. Pour this mixture in the amount of 3 tablespoons with two cups of boiling water and set aside for fifteen minutes to infuse. Drink throughout the day like regular tea.
Special Recommendations
Chicory is a plant that is considered similar to dandelion, hence it is recommended to mix these two plants. And if you add a little peppermint to the resulting composition, then you get a tea that is perfect for autumn and spring healing courses of treatment and recovery of the body. This tea has a curative effect in rheumatic diseases, and also enhances the activity of the kidneys and liver, in other words, restores the normal state of he alth of a person.
Use in other areas
It is worth noting that the roasted roots of the plant are an excellent surrogate for coffee. So, in Latvia, a root is added to ordinary coffee, and a cold drink with apple juice, honey and lemon is prepared from it. But in Estonia it is egg coffee. Fruit and berry tea is flavored with chicory. At the same time, the roots can serve as a source of fructose, inulin, be used for the manufacture of alcohol (at the same time, the yield of alcohol from it is greater than from the same potato, and the quality is muchbetter). Especially chicory is valued in the diet of diabetics. It is also widely used in the production of cakes and sweets in the food industry.
Fresh leaves and grass of common chicory are edible, there are its salad varieties with a high content of ascorbic acid. So, salads are prepared from young stems, leaves and shoots. But the young shoots are fried, boiled. It is baked in Belgium in wine with apples and cheese. In European countries, leaf chicory is grown, which is added to salads, as well as side dishes for steamed, fried, baked and stewed fish, raw in soups. In addition, this is an excellent honey plant, during rains and in humid weather, the flowers emit a huge amount of blue nectar. About 100 kilograms of honey are obtained from 1 hectare of chicory.
Contraindications
Chicory, the properties and contraindications of which have been known to mankind for a long time, has practically no side effects, and is also non-toxic.
Prolonged use of preparations from this plant can cause active secretion of gastric juice and diuresis. The use of herbal preparations from chicory is not recommended in the treatment of babies under two years of age. In addition, individual intolerance may be observed.
